1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exhaust gas component measuring apparatus which measures the components of the exhaust gas of a vehicle while driving the vehicle automatically.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 show an example of a conventional exhaust gas component measuring apparatus of this type. This exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51 is an apparatus which measures the components of the exhaust gas of a vehicle (not shown) while automatically driving the vehicle stored within a housing (not shown) in a given driving mode. The exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51 comprises a control board 52, and a robot 53 which is disposed within the vehicle. The control board 52 comprises an input key (not shown) through which instructions for specification of kinds of measurement and for start of the measurement can be input, and a microcomputer (not shown). The robot 53 includes an actuator (not shown) for driving the starter and accelerator and, under the control of the control board 52, is allowed to automatically drive the engine of the vehicle in a given driving mode corresponding to the kind of measurement specified. By the way, in FIG. 7, a solid line shows a control system which is carried out by the control board 52, whereas a broken line shows an operation system to be executed by operators.
To the control board 52, there is connected an operation device 54 consisting of a microcomputer; and, to the operation device 54, there are connected a CVS 55 (Constant Volume Sampler) disposed in an exhaust pipe (not shown) of the vehicle and an analyzing meter 56 for the CVS 55. Under the control of the operation device 54, the CVS 55 samples exhaust gas and analyzing meter 56 analyzes the components of the exhaust gas sampled; and, at the same time, the operation device 54 operates the measured results of the components of the exhaust gas using data obtained by the analyzing meter 56.
Further, in the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51, in order to set up the environment of the vehicle according to the driving mode of the vehicle, there are disposed a cooling fan 57 for cooling the engine of the vehicle and an insolation device 59 for applying the sun rays to the vehicle, while the cooling fan 57 and insolation device 59, as shown in FIG. 7, can be switched on and off by the operation of the operator. Specifically, the cooling fan 57 is switched on and off according to the driving and stopping of the vehicle, while a bonnet 58 is opened to secure the cooling performance of the cooling fan 57 when the cooling fan 57 is in operation.
Also, the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51 further comprises an exhaust gas blower 60 for forcibly exhaust the remaining exhaust gas which has not been sampled by the CVS 55, a dynamometer 61 for carrying thereon the driving wheel of the vehicle to secure the running state of the vehicle, and a vehicle data measuring device 64 for measuring vehicle data such as the number of revolutions of the vehicle engine, while these parts can also be switched on and off by an artificial operation, that is, by the operation of operator. The data on the number of revolutions of the roller of the dynamometer 61 as well as the vehicle data detected by the vehicle data measuring device 64 are respectively transmitted to the control board 52. Further, in case where the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51 is in trouble, for example, when it recognizes the blow-out of a tire, or when a failure sensor 62 detects an abnormal condition, the operator stops the driving of the vehicle to thereby stop the measuring operation of the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51.
However, in the conventional exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51, although the driving of the vehicle, sampling and analysis of test pieces, and operation of the measured results can be automatically carried out by the robot 53, CVS 55, analyzing meter 56 and operation device 54 respectively, other kinds of settings or operations necessary for the measurement must be executed by hand. Therefore, since there is a strong probability that mistakes or variations can occur in such hand-operated operations, not only the measurement cannot be done with high accuracy but also the number of steps to be operated by hand increases to thereby increase the cost for the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51.
For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the LA-4 mode test, in California of USA provides that, while switching a vehicle driving mode sequentially to a CT mode (a low temperature acceleration mode) for a given time, a CS mode (a low temperature gentle acceleration mode) for given time, a soak mode (a stop mode) for a given time, and an HT mode (a high temperature acceleration mode) for a given time, the components of the exhaust gas of the vehicle should be measured. Therefore, before and after the soak mode, the on and off of the cooling fan 57, opening and closing of the bonnet 58, and on and off of the exhaust gas blower 60 and vehicle data measuring device 64 must be switched accurately at their respective given times.
Conventionally, these operations, as described above, are all carried out by an operator (human being). Therefore, it is unavoidable that, for example, the operator can forget to switch the on and off of the cooling fan 57, and the soak time can vary. Also, in case where a single person carries out two or more operations, there will be always produced a time lag between the operations. To prevent such time lag, it is necessary to provide the same number of operators as the number of items to be operated, which increases personnel costs to a rather great extent.
Especially, with regard to the opening and closing of the bonnet 58, unlike the other operations that can be remotely controlled, the operator must enter the housing to open and close the bonnet 58 directly. For this reason, a large operation time lag is easy to occur and further, as the operator enters and leaves the housing, the environment within the housing can vary. Further, depending on the kinds of tests, there is a fear that the operator can be exposed to severe conditions such as high and low temperatures, sun rays, and high positions (heights).
In addition, in the conventional exhaust gas component measuring apparatus 51, although detection of troubles in part of the apparatus 51 is automatically carried out by the failure sensor 62, the emergency stop of the device that corresponds to the occurrence of the trouble is carried out manually by an operator.
The present invention aims at eliminating the drawbacks found in the above-mentioned conventional exhaust gas component measuring apparatus. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an exhaust gas component measuring apparatus which is able to fully automatically measure the components of exhaust gas with ease, at a reduced low cost, and with enhanced efficiency and accuracy.
In attaining the above object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an exhaust gas component measuring apparatus which measures the components of the exhaust gas of a vehicle while driving the vehicle in a given driving mode, and comprises: driving mode setting means (for example, in the illustrated embodiment (which applies similarly hereinafter), control board 14) for setting the driving mode of the vehicle V; environment setting means (a cooling fan 7, and a bonnet opening and closing device 8) for automatically setting the environment of the vehicle V in accordance with the driving mode set by the driving mode setting means; a driving device (a robot 3) for automatically driving the vehicle V in such a manner that the vehicle V can be driven in the driving mode set; and, measuring devices (a CVS 11, an analyzing meter 13, and an operation device 15) respectively for automatically measuring the components of the exhaust gas of the vehicle as the vehicle V is automatically driven.
According to the present exhaust gas component measuring apparatus, in case where the driving mode of the vehicle is set by the driving mode setting means, the environment setting means automatically sets up the environment of the vehicle, the driving device automatically drives the vehicle V in such a manner that the vehicle V can be driven in the driving mode set, and, as the vehicle V is automatically driven, the measuring devices automatically measure the components of the exhaust gas of the vehicle. As described above, in the present apparatus, after its operation is started, the environment setting and driving of the vehicle corresponding to the set driving mode as well as the measurement of the components of the exhaust gas can be carried out fully automatically; and, therefore, while eliminating artificial operation mistakes as well as time variations and time lags, the measurement of the components of the exhaust gas can be executed easily, at a reduced low cost, and with enhanced efficiency and accuracy.
Also, according to a second aspect of the invention, in the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention, the environment setting means includes bonnet opening and closing means (bonnet opening and closing device 8) for automatically opening and closing a bonnet B according to the set driving mode.
According to the present exhaust gas component measuring apparatus, since the bonnet opening and closing means automatically opens and closes the bonnet B according to the set driving mode, an operation to open and close the bonnet, which has been difficult in the conventional exhaust gas component measuring apparatus, can be carried out automatically. Therefore, the measurement of the components of the exhaust gas can be executed with no need for an operator to enter the inside of a housing for storing the vehicle therein. As a result of this, there can be positively eliminated fears that the environment within the housing can be changed by an operator entering and leaving the housing, and that, depending on the kinds of tests, the operator can be exposed to severe conditions such as high and low temperature, sun rays, and high positions (heights).
Further, according to a third aspect of the invention, in the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus according to the second aspect of the invention, the bonnet opening and closing means is composed of an actuator 10 disposed within an engine room ER which can be opened and closed by the bonnet 8.
According to the present exhaust gas component measuring apparatus, since the bonnet opening and closing means is composed of the actuator which is disposed within the engine room, when compared with a case in which the bonnet opening and closing means is installed in the outside of the vehicle, especially, the mounting of the bonnet opening and closing means can be adjusted easily according to differences between the sizes of vehicles, thereby being able to obtain high versatility. At the same time, when moving the vehicle after the measurement of the components of the exhaust gas of the vehicle is completed, there is eliminated the need to remove the actuator from the vehicle, thereby being able to enhance the efficiency of the measurement.
Moreover, according to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the exhaust gas component measuring apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects of the invention, there are further included abnormal condition detect means (failure sensor 16) for detecting the abnormal condition of the environment of the vehicle V and/or the abnormal condition of the driving state of the vehicle V, and emergency stop means (control board 14) for automatically stopping the vehicle automatic driving by the driving device in case where any abnormal condition is detected by the abnormal detect means.
According to the present exhaust gas component measuring apparatus, in case where the abnormal condition of the environment of the vehicle and/or the abnormal condition of the driving state of the vehicle, the emergency stop means automatically stops the automatic driving of the vehicle by the driving device. Therefore, in case where any abnormal condition occurs, the driving device can be stopped positively.